Examine the environmental, social and federal challenges associated with large-scale inter-basin water transfer projects, with reference to the Ken-Betwa Link Project.

Inter-basin transfer seeks to move water from surplus to deficit basins; the National Perspective Plan (1980) identified 30 links — 14 Himalayan and 16 Peninsular — under the NWDA [1]. The Ken-Betwa Link Project (KBLP), the first to reach implementation (Cabinet approval December 2021, ₹44,605 crore) [2], shows that the gains are real but the environmental, social and federal costs are equally substantial.

Environmental challenges

• Habitat submergence: the Daudhan reservoir submerges about 9,000 ha, including 4,141 ha of the Panna Tiger Reserve core and 1,314 ha of buffer [3] — a direct trade-off with wildlife conservation.
• Projects need layered EIA, forest and wildlife clearances, requiring a Landscape Management Plan by the NTCA and Wildlife Institute of India for the Panna landscape [3].
• Hydrological uncertainty: "surplus" is estimated on historic flows, while climate variability alters basin yields, weakening the surplus-deficit premise.

Social challenges

• Displacement: 10 villages and about 1,913 families are affected, resettled under the LARR Act, 2013 [3].
• Land acquisition, canal alignment (a 216 km link canal) and downstream livelihood loss for fishers and floodplain farmers generate prolonged local resistance.
• Offsetting benefits are significant — irrigation to 10.62 lakh ha, drinking water for ~62 lakh people, 103 MW hydropower [2] — making equitable benefit-sharing the real test.

Federal challenges

• Water is a State subject (Entry 17) while inter-State rivers fall under Entry 56, Union List, so transfers need donor-state consent; KBLP moved only after a tripartite MP-UP-Centre agreement (March 2021) [1].
• Disputes are channelled to tribunals under Article 262 and the ISRWD Act, 1956, which suffer chronic delay — nine tribunals so far, with the Cauvery Tribunal dissolved only in 2018 after decades [4].

Thus interlinking is a supplement, not a panacea. Sequencing projects behind prior interstate consensus, watershed-level demand management and credible rehabilitation, with strengthened tribunal timelines, would let India pursue water security consistent with cooperative federalism and SDG-6.